ARANEA: Shello?MEENAH: hey twerketMEENAH: da fuck you think youre doinARANEA: I have no idea what you're talking a8out.MEENAH: bullshipMEENAH: you went after the blue nerds ringMEENAH: you wearin it now aint youARANEA: I couldn't say, Meenah.ARANEA: I do like to wear jewelry from time to time, just like you.ARANEA: It's certainly possi8le there is a shiny new ring on my finger.ARANEA: So what if there is?MEENAH: aranea so kelp me godMEENAH: you need to take that shit off right nowMEENAH: throw it in a volcano or somefin and just come homeARANEA: First, I would appreci8 it if you referred to me as Mindfang.ARANEA: Remem8er how I've 8een trying to make that 8e a thing l8tely?ARANEA: Second, I have no intention of discarding this ring, now or ever.ARANEA: Wheels are already in motion, Meenah.ARANEA: Irons are heating up as we speak!MEENAH: wheelsMEENAH: ironsMEENAH: aranea whatMEENAH: mindfang what are you even planningMEENAH: you gonna meddle?MEENAH: you gonna meddle i just know it UGHARANEA: I am just taking some initi8tive for a change.ARANEA: Has it occurred to you that it might have 8ecome a little tiresome for me to spend eternity as a 8oring no8ody while so many others got to play important roles in determining the f8 of reality?ARANEA: Heck, you were 8arely dead for two minutes 8efore you started assem8ling an army!ARANEA: Even my altern8 universe self got to lead an amazing life. Which is all well and good for HER........ARANEA: 8ut what a8out ME, Meenah?ARANEA: Water. 8oat. Me.MEENAH: yo i feel you on thatMEENAH: trust me gurlMEENAH: but you do realize youre makin a glubbin mess hereMEENAH: i mean you KNOW this shit aint likeMEENAH: part a the legit chain of eventsMEENAH: you arent supposed to be thereARANEA: Of course I know that.ARANEA: Like I said, I have a plan.MEENAH: W)(AT PLANARANEA: I'm going to take over this session.ARANEA: And then I am going to make sure it never 8ears fruit.ARANEA: If I can stop this universe from 8eing cre8ted, then the young Lord of Time will never have hatched in the first place.ARANEA: I won't merely 8e defeating an invinci8le foe. I will 8e erasing all the pain he has ever caused.MEENAH: uhMEENAH: serk have you lost itMEENAH: you know all youre doing is making another doomed timeline where everyone dies rightARANEA: Of course I know that.ARANEA: Please, Meenah. Don't insult me. I've given this a lot of thought.ARANEA: If anyone else attempted this, what you said would 8e true. 8ut I am not just anyone.ARANEA: I am a very powerful Sylph of Light. I have had millions of sweeps to hone my a8ilities.ARANEA: As one gifted with the aspect of light, certain outcomes will 8e prone to 8r8king in my favor.ARANEA: And as an ancient, highly experienced sylph, I wield an unprecedented a8ility to heal.ARANEA: A doomed timeline is really just an anatomical feature of a much larger organism. Like a capillary which comes to an end, 8ecause it has withered and died.ARANEA: I 8elieve I will 8e a8le to heal this offshoot.ARANEA: And with enough time and patience, I am confident I can restore its vitality to such a gr8 extent, it will effectively take over as the alpha timeline, thus reducing English to a lost footnote of paradox space.ARANEA: Then the new alpha timeline will flourish under my immortal care. I will watch over it for eternity, assuring peace and harmony everywhere. There will 8e a new progeny of universes, and those universes will 8eget more universes, and each will 8enefit from my good grace. I will personally make sure nothing like the English mishap ever occurs again.ARANEA: I mean, this is mostly theoretical, of course.ARANEA: 8ut the most important thing here is that I am involved now.ARANEA: It is vital to all our interests that I at least TRY. MEENAH: aightMEENAH: so you just totally flipped your think pan is allMEENAH: got itARANEA: I appreci8 the vote of confidence.ARANEA: Are we a8out done here?MEENAH: noMEENAH: so your timeline healing fantasy asideMEENAH: your plan is to just waltz in thereMEENAH: an knock over the whole sessionMEENAH: you do realize that means youll have to take down my grownup selfMEENAH: likeMEENAH: not to blow my own conch but she is arguably the greatest deadliest most stylin badass who ever livedARANEA: I am aware.ARANEA: 8ut there is no one who is in a 8etter position to deal with her than myself.ARANEA: After all, who knows you 8etter than I? ::::)MEENAH: ok yeah butMEENAH: you aint exactly shoppin for her mindfangMEENAH: she got all these sick powers yoARANEA: It's like I said.ARANEA: I've had quite a long time to refine my a8ilities.ARANEA: I will have a few tricks up my sleeve.MEENAH: manMEENAH: this is gonna go so terribubblyARANEA: Meenah, I must say your attitude is a little surprising.ARANEA: I thought you were typically gung ho a8out such audacious escapades?MEENAH: yeah wellMEENAH: theres audacious and then theres bald faced flipping insmanateeMEENAH: besideMEENAH: did you ever stop and think about meARANEA: What a8out you?MEENAH: you being alive againMEENAH: all runnin around stirring up trouble while im still a ghostMEENAH: im gonna miss youARANEA: I'll miss you too, Meenah.MEENAH: will i ever sea you againARANEA: I really don't know.ARANEA: When you're trying to do the right thing, there is always sacrifice involved.ARANEA: Remem8er? That's why we all died in the first place.MEENAH: i guessARANEA: 8esides. I'm sure Vriska would approve of my plan.ARANEA: May8e she can explain my reasoning 8etter than I have.MEENAH: um noMEENAH: actually serket deuce isnt down with this at allARANEA: What?ARANEA: She isn't?MEENAH: nopeMEENAH: she thinks you bein dumb as a fuckARANEA: What did she say, exactly?ARANEA: Were those her exact words?MEENAH: dunnoMEENAH: this aint the serket twin message reelay serviceARANEA: Is she there with you?MEENAH: yeahARANEA: Can you put her on?MEENAH: noMEENAH: noMEENAH: call her yourselfMEENAH: NOMEENAH: bitch dont touch my clamARANEA: Very well.ARANEA: You have 8oth made yourselves a8undantly clear.ARANEA: I will go it alone. 8ut that's what I was signing up for in the first place, I suppose.ARANEA: Good8ye, Meenah. Take care.

So what do we call this pause? I've been batting ideas around all day. We could go with the obvious choice, the MINIGIGAPAUSE. Or maybe, MEGAPAUSE 2: BACK IN THE MEGASADDLE. Or if that makes too much sense, we could always settle on the MICROTERAPAUSE. As you can see, there are so many incredibly intelligent and meaningful things we could call this pause. Deciding how to refer to the pause is an exercise that I will leave to the reader. Feel free to discuss the matter with friends. Or strangers. Anyone who will listen really. If they start to run away, I strongly recommend you chase them.

Why don't we say that A665 begins on 4/13. That's a fun number that we all can get excited about. I have a lot of catch-up work to do between now and then. Not the least of which is drawing the actual content to be posted. But also a lot of gamedev work. Game production is rolling pretty hot right now. Stuff is being churned out almost faster than I can keep track of. Did I mention? I accidentally started running a game studio a little while ago. Whoops, sorry about that. There are all these people being paid to make things happen, and I have to be like "Yeah, keep doing that stuff, everybody." It's getting pretty easy to lose track of how many people work for What Pumpkin. My last estimate was somewhere between 30 and 1000. The true figure is a very frisky moving target.

A6A6A5, a.k.a. Caliborn's Masterpiece, is actually done. It's probably better to hold off posting it until 4/13, when more content will soon follow aftewards. I am sure pausing on that note for months would mess with your head a lot more than the note we're already pausing on. I sometimes feel I have at least a modest responsibility to manage your sanity. It'll be tough sitting on this content though. Tougher than sitting on all of A664 for the better part of a year. I don't think it is out of line to describe it as the best material this website will ever exhibit. It will be all down hill from there, in every direction. Even up.

Speaking of sanity management, way back when, I was pretty on the fence about posting A664 spaced out over months like I did, vs. all at once. Doing the latter in hindsight probably would have been a fucked up thing to do to the internet though. The GAME OVER fallout alone was a bit much as it was. Including it in tandem with the rest of it? Not sure what to make of that. Let's review the CONTENT CRUSH that would have entailed. Bad Anime -> Game Over -> Sadstuck -> Lowas Quest -> 100 retconned panels of oil -> A bunch of other shit -> Punky Serket -> Fantroll Storytime -> 8 password pages -> The Kiss On Horse Mountain -> and finally -> The Punchline. You know, that's an awful lot of baloney to publish. I think the fell-swoop reaction to all that would have been quite a thing to behold, but also, perhaps an irresponsible thing to do to a hapless fanbase after a year in hibernation. I'm told that in 2015, young people are heavily susceptible to "the feels", and trifling with those forces could be injurious to their future development. Wait, did that just sound like something your grandpa would say? Mother fuck, where did I put my cane. Oh right, I snapped it in half from shaking it at the sky.

I may have been in the process of making a point there, but we're going to have to pick this up another time. The comic isn't going to pause itself!!!

Over the last couple months, I have been surreptitiously collapsing several update horses into single, bigger horses. This means A6A6I4 is going to end a little sooner than previously advertised. Same total page count, but finishing sooner. Please consult the important horse calendar below.

So what happens when A6A6I4 is done? I'm not quite sure yet. I'm still working on everything that comes after that. I've written it mostly, but haven't drawn anything yet. There will almost certainly be another pause, but I'm not sure how long it will be yet. I will let you know after 1/19.